What Are the Symptoms of Diabetic Retinopathy?

Though vision may gradually become blurred, significant loss of sight does not usually occur with background retinopathy. Since the patient does not experience pain or external symptoms such as blood-shot eyes or discharge, changes in the retina can go unnoticed unless detected by an eye examination.

When bleeding occurs in proliferative retinopathy, the patient has clouding or complete loss of sight. Connective tissue pulling on the retina causes distortion and blurring. However, if abnormalities occur in the peripheral retina, the patient may not experience any symptoms.